Health reform implementation

A powerful House Republican on Wednesday introduced an amendment to the GOP spending bill that would defund the sweeping new healthcare reform law.

Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), chairman of the House Appropriations health subcommittee, introduced the amendment to the continuing resolution to keep the government funded through the end of September.

According to the amendment, no money can be used for "any employee, officer, contractor, or grantee of any department or agency" funded by the reform law.

"My amendment prevents funding from being used to implement Obamacare while we continue to work for a full legislative or judicial repeal," Rehberg said in a statement.

With a vote to repeal the reform law failing in the Senate earlier this month, House Republicans are hoping to choke off funds to implement the overhaul. The law is also being challenged in a number of federal courts, though the Supreme Court isn't expected to hear the cases until 2012.

A majority of Americans would disapprove of efforts by Congress to defund healthcare reform, a new poll found Wednesday.

Despite figures suggesting that most U.S. adults disapprove of President Obama's signature healthcare reform law, respondents to a new CBS News poll expressed opposition to defunding it, as Republicans in Congress have said they'll pursue.

Fifty-five percent of US. adults said they would disapprove if Congress stopped funding for the new healthcare law, while 35 percent said they would approve. Ten percent said they did not know.

The poll suggests that voters might react negatively to the continued efforts by Republicans in Congress to defund healthcare reform, absent the political ability to repeal it.

A slight majority — 51 percent — of the respondents in the CBS poll said they either somewhat or strongly disapprove of the law; 33 percent approve.

Polls have shown mixed opinions about repealing the law, too. The most regular tracker of opinion about repealing healthcare, the Kaiser Family Foundation's healthcare poll, found in January that 43 percent of adults support repeal, while 47 percent support keeping the law as it is, or even expanding it.

Those polls present a tricky balancing act for Republican leaders in Congress, who have vowed to work consistently to repeal or undo the new healthcare law, and face tremendous pressure from conservatives in their own party to follow through on their rhetoric. Already, the House has voted to repeal and replace the legislation, though that effort stalled in the Senate. They have said they would offer up votes to defund the legislation, too, though those measures could face a similar fate in the upper chamber.

The CBS poll, conducted Feb. 11-14, has a 3 percent margin of error.

One of the most vocal supporters of the healthcare reform law on Wednesday morning blasted a new federal rule that sets requirements on how much insurers spend on healthcare services.

In an attempt to limit administrative spending, new medical loss ratio (MLR) rules require insurers in the small and individual markets to spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on healthcare services. Insurers in the large group market must spend at least 85 percent.

Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.), speaking to the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) conference, criticized the rule for lumping in insurance salesmen with administrative costs.

House Democrats will seek another offset to repeal a provision in the healthcare bill that requires businesses to file 1099 to every vendor from which they purchase at least $600 in goods and services. 

House Ways and Means ranking member Sander Levin (D-Mich.) told reporters on Tuesday that he would seek another pay-for to a measure that will be marked up by the panel on Thursday. 

The committee will consider two bills, one by Rep. Dan Lungren, (R- Calif.) that doesn't offset the $22 billion cost to repeal the 1099 provision and another that goes a step farther to end the 1099 requirement for owners of rental real estate. 

The Health and Human Services Department is working with states across the country to make sure that the healthcare reform law works for them, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified Tuesday.

"We are diligently working with governors around the country," the former Kansas governor said during her first congressional testimony since the administration released its 2012 budget proposal Monday. "It's a commitment that I take very seriously because these are my former colleagues and I know exactly what they're facing."

Republicans on the panel peppered Sebelius with questions about Medicaid and other issues of concern during the 90-minute hearing. Read more...

The Obama administration health department office tasked with selling the healthcare reform law is looking to quadruple its budget while almost doubling the size of its staff.

Under the Department of Health and Human Services’ fiscal 2012 budget request, the assistant secretary for public affairs' office would get a bump from $4.8 million to $19.9 million in fiscal 2012. Meanwhile, the office would grow from 24 to 46 full-time equivalent employees.

Almost all of the new funding would be used to improve healthcare.gov and to conduct an educational outreach campaign “designed to help Americans understand and access their benefits and information under the law,” HHS wrote in its budget justification. The efforts were funded in fiscal 2010 and 2011 under the reform law, according to the budget document.

As Republicans evaluate their options for defunding the healthcare reform law, the Obama administration’s budget details the cost of implementing parts of the sweeping overhaul.

Implementing a new long-term care insurance program would cost $120 million in fiscal 2012, a large chunk of which would be devoted to public outreach.

About 30 staff members would be added to the health department office overseeing implementation of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act.
Read more...

Senate Appropriations Chair Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) on Tuesday criticized proposed cuts to community health centers in House Republicans' stop-gap budget proposal for the rest of the year.

"The Republican proposal would eliminate funding for 127 clinics in 39 States (and two territories) and reduce services at another 1,096 Community Health Centers nation-wide," says Inouye's detailed analysis of the Continuing Resolution. "More than 2.8 million people would likely lose access to their current primary care provider and over 5,000 health center staff could lose their jobs."

The president's 2012 budget proposal, by contrast, builds on the healthcare reform law by boosting investment in the health centers. The budget includes $3.3 billion for the Health Centers Program, including $1.2 billion in mandatory funding provided through the Affordable Care Act Community Health Center Fund.

"The infusion of funding provided through the Affordable Care Act, combined with the discretionary request for FY 2012, will enable health centers to serve 900,000 new patients and increase access to medical, oral, and behavioral health services to a total of 24 million patients," the HHS budget proposal states.

A top Obama administration health official shot back Tuesday morning at criticism from Republican governors that state-run health insurance exchanges in the new healthcare reform law are an overreach of federal power.

Twenty-one Republican governors last week demanded greater flexibility to implement and operate state insurance exchanges, which open for individuals and small businesses in 2014.

Joel Ario, who heads the Department of Health and Human Services' exchange program, repudiated the criticism Tuesday during an appearance at the National Association of Health Underwriters conference.
 
“They need to read the law,” Ario said of the governors.

Republicans on the Rules Committee denied Rep. Steve King's request for a waiver on his amendment.